by LEILA S. CHUDORI
(Translated by JENNIFER LINDSAY)
Protesters against fuel price hike at UIN Jogja PHOTO/Vito Adriono, Flickr CC
21 May 1998
It was the third day in a row that I had got up early to go to the House of Representatives. For me, as well as friends and colleagues, these days were both tense and exciting. Thousands of students from all over Indonesia had occupied the parliamentary building. We, their ‘seniors’, joined them, kept them company, listened to prominent people making speeches; and from behind the scenes encouraged them to demand Suharto’s resignation. The night before, stories had circulated that an announcement was imminent. That morning, before I had even left the house, suddenly the television stopped me in my tracks. It was a direct broadcast. President Suharto, accompanied by his eldest daughter, finally announced that he was stepping down. I simply could not believe it. I immediately called friends and we agreed to meet at the House of Representatives where at that moment the student occupation erupted in celebration.
For anyone born and raised during the New Order, 21 May 1998 is an important date. I had long despaired that I would only ever experience one president during my lifetime, because for more than thirty years Suharto had appeared unshakeable.
For me, that moment in 1998, became a rebirth. The fall of Suharto, later to become an extremely important part of the ending for my novel Pulang (published in English translation as Home), was a chance to re-imagine what kind of Indonesia do we want to be?
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17 August 1945, the auspicious date in Indonesian history when Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesia’s independence, is also marked by a little bit of humour. Our nation operated without a constitution for a day. This is a historical fact, because the decision to proclaim independence was made hastily to take advantage of a moment following the Japanese wartime defeat. However, the basic constitution for the Republic of Indonesia (in Indonesian known as UUD ’45), had in fact already been drawn up by the Founding Fathers a few months earlier. Members of the Preparatory Committee of Indonesian Independence adopted the Five Principles, Pancasila, as the foundation of the state the day after the proclamation, namely on 18 August 1945. The more important fact, though, is that the debate about shaping those founding principles included representatives from all ethnicities, religions and groups in Indonesia.
The final debate in the history of the formation of the Republic, still raging in the minutes leading up to the announcement, was over what came to be known as the debate of ‘seven words’. The first principle of Pancasila, which today we know as ‘Belief in the One and Only God’ (Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa) actually had a sub-clause … ‘with the obligation for its Muslim adherents to carry out the Islamic law/syariah’. There was constant debate about whether it was necessary to include or edit those seven Indonesian words – ‘dengan kewajiban menjalankan syariat Islam bagi pemeluk-pemeluknya’. Islamic leaders felt that their inclusion was mandatory, whereas Christian leaders thought the seven words should be left out. Eventually, after intense lobbying and persuasion, Mohammad Hatta convinced them that the seven words should be omitted, because this was the Indonesia that we wanted, inclusive and respectful of difference.
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